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By Alyssa Rudolph

CREE LANGUAGE

‘We’re at a very critical stage’: language revitalization underway in North Battleford

Feb 13, 2026 | 5:00 PM

The Cree language isn’t just a language. 

That’s the message Celeste Tootoosis has spread in her classroom for the past 35 years. 

“When the students see each other performing, singing, dancing, they’ll see that there is still a use for our language. It brings joy, pride, and identities to our young people,” she said. 

More than 15 years ago, Tootoosis and fellow Cree educators, began a language festival called the indigenous language bowl. The event helped teach students about language revitalization and transformed it into friendly competitions.  

Now, she’s reviving the event in North Battleford with a hope to spark new excitement and inspire more children to embrace their language. 

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“Maybe they’ll sing a song, maybe they’ll say some poetry. They’ll perform or they’ll hear each other speaking Cree and that is the hope that they’ll see a use for learning the language.” 

She hopes to bring together multiple schools, guest speakers and Elders, creating a space where youth can feel motivated and hear Cree spoken proudly.  

“We want to invite the elders to come out, because we want them to hear their language being used. A lot of us who are language speakers, we don’t have a space to be able to speak to each other or hear our language.”

Language is our identity  

“We’ve lost a lot through residential schools, being punished for speaking the language,” said Tootoosis.  

Today, she says, that loss is still deeply felt. Many children have never even heard Cree spoken before they step into her classroom.  

“We have to start right from the alphabet, like, the sounds of the alphabet. We have to start with the numbers, going way back to a Kindergarten level of language.” 

Along with the mixed levels of language knowledge, the lack of Cree-speaking educators makes it hard to spread teachings to younger students.  

“It’s hard to revitalize language when you don’t have the personnel to do it as well.” 

“We’re at a very critical stage in the language acquisition,” Tootoosis sighed.  

Despite seeing the number of fluent Cree speakers decline, the longtime educator still has hope for the next generation.  

“There is one girl who keeps making her list of words, all the ones she knows. So, she’s going to study the ones that she doesn’t know.”

This young student will help to be a motivator at Sakewew High School as she continues her own journey of revitalizing language. Tootoosis added, many students are currently struggling with self esteem where they are scared to make a mistake or pronounce words wrong.  

“There is no wrong way,” she reminds her class. “Just as long as we try.” 

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Alyssa.rudolph@pattisonmedia.com